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First time home buyer: HVAC home inspection issues

Hello,

My wife and I are purchasing our first home and a couple of HVAC issues pertaining to out furnace and water heater came up.

1. The furnace has mineral build up on the top of the burners as a result of condensate dripping onto them. See picture below. I was just wondering if this could indicate a bigger problem with the furnace or if this is a common occurrence with furnaces. The inspector recommended cleaning and servicing the furnace. Anything else we should be concerned with?

2. The water heater is 14 years old obviously at the end of its life. There is a leak from the water heater drain valve (see photo). Is this likely fixable or is this water heater likely on its last leg and in need of replacing? Main question is: Ask the owners to fix it or take the credit and buy a new water heater?

You must consider that you are buying a "used" house and it won't be in "new" condition. If you truly want new equipment, then either ask previous owner's to replace all equipment, and re-negotiate the price, or assume you're buying used equipment in a used house. Sorry if I sound harsh, but most inspectors find enough potential problems to justify their expense (plus some). My advice is to simply take enough credit to have furnace serviced, and some additional to put towards a water heater replacement in the future. Flush out the water heater and install a new faucet washer in drain valve. If the water heater is still working OK, then you've probably just got a small piece of sediment under faucet washer inside drain valve (common problem).

On the furnace, I'd have it checked by an HVAC professional to determine exactly what is going on.
It could just be from an old condensate leak, but it could also be condensation from the flue gases due to a venting problem.
The draft inducer housing needs to be checked for cracks, and that the appropriate 3" to 4" connector was used to connect the vent pipe to the outlet of the draft inducer.

It isn't uncommon for the composite housing of the draft inducer on those furnaces to develop cracks, and I occasionally find them with 4" vent pipe just pushed down over the 3" outlet from the furnace, with no connector. Either one can cause issues with condensation in the vent pipe, and/or poor venting.